It Must Be Tuesday
by thatfilmgirl
Summary: Sam figured you knew the apocalypse was coming when Dean got knocked out by a ninety pound girl. A multifandom crossover. However no prior knowledge of the other fandoms required but will enhance reading pleasure. Main fandoms: Jossverse. Cameos by random
1. Chapter 1 It Must Be Tuesday

**Title: **It Must Be Tuesday  
**Rating: **G/PG  
**Summary**: Sam figured you knew the apocalypse was coming when Dean got knocked out by a ninety pound girl.  
**Characters: **Sam, Dean, and River Tam (Firefly/Serenity)  
**Disclaimer**: Not mine. I mean, if they were, the show would be pretty different (well, not too different but there'd be my stuff…). Some pieces of dialogue taken from the movie _Serenity_.  
**A/N: **Yeah, you read right. River Tam meets the Brothers Winchester. She's more lucid, like she was at the end of _Serenity_. No time travel or anything. She just grew up in this time.

Prior knowledge of the Serenity!verse isn't neccasary but it might improve your enjoyment of this story. This will be a multi-fandom crossover later on

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**I.**

Sam figured you knew the apocalypse was coming when Dean got knocked out by a ninety pound girl. It was funny, but it was also… concerning. Maybe it was Dean's unwillingness to hit girls. Maybe it was the fact that he was still in shock from seeing her knock out a biker three times her size with a roundhouse kick and render two others useless at the same time, among other things.

Those in the bar who had yet to draw her attention fled as soon as she jump kicked two patrons in the chest before flipping backwards, immediately sweeping the feet out from under another person.

"Eta Kooram Nah Smech!"

Sam wasn't sure why he said those words. He wasn't sure where he had ever learned them, but they came to him and they worked. Her eyes closed, the pool cue dropped from her fingers and she dropped to the ground. The bar was silent except for Dean's groaning as Sam picked his way over the unconscious bodies to stand over her. Long, wavy hair spread out around her head, her chest rising and falling gently.

There was no lengthy debate in his head. There was never a question of what he should do. Sam only bent down and gathered the sleeping girl in his arms. For the damage she had caused, the girl was surprisingly light and delicate.

"Dude, what the hell are you doing?" Dean whined, using the edge of the bar to pull himself up. "We are not taking her with us."

"Get the manacles from the trunk."

Dean opened his mouth to object but Sam was already out of the bar.

**II.**

"Chaining anunstable killer woman to the sink is exactly what we should be doing with her," Dean grumbled sarcastically, but locked the manacle on her wrist. The clinking of chains filled the tense silence following Dean's statement. "How do we know she's not gonna break out?"

Sam reached for the antiseptic and started to clean the cut on her forehead. It wouldn't need stitches but would leave an impressive scar. "She doesn't have super strength. Just uses the situation to her advantage." He bandaged the cut up, tossing the tape back into the kit.

"Use the situation to her advantage," he mimicked. "You're taking care of her like a kicked puppy—"

"She's chained up, isn't she?" Sam bit out, giving Dean a look before gently taking her bruised and bloody hand to clean the busted open knuckles.

Dean was quiet after that and he watched his brother in silence for several long moments. "You had a vision about her, didn't you?" It was quiet, understanding. Sam's silence was the only answer he needed and he breathed slowly, running a hand through his hair. "Great."

**III.**

The rattling chains woke the brothers from their restless sleep and they immediately looked over to the bathroom. Dean carefully reached over to grab the tranquilizer gun. Sam hated to admit that the gun was necessary but precaution was usually beneficial.

As they peeked around the corner, the girl was leaning against the side of the tub, looking at her bound wrists with what could be described as detached curiosity. Sam glanced over at Dean who was cautiously lowering his gun a little. It was Dean who spoke first.

The girl didn't respond for several long moments but then she looked over at them. She was pretty in a slightly otherworldly way. Dark doe eyes watching them, calculating, shining in an off-kilter way. She looked back at her wrists, her wavy hair curtaining her face. "Not a demon. Just a girl," she said plainly, sounding a little lost.

"What's your name?" Sam asked, shrugging off Dean's grasp to near the bathroom. She looked at him warily but didn't shy away.

"River."

**IV.**

"World's gonna end soon."

Dean raised an eyebrow and River tapped her temple. "Saw it. Not fun. Might be zombies," she whispered, as if telling him an important secret. He would've taken her more seriously if she wasn't perched on a stone retaining wall in a airy purple dress with a little bit of vanilla ice cream on the tip of her nose.

"Thought the world would end in fire."

River shook her head, the ice cream still on her nose. "Some say in ice. Wouldn't be any fun in the fire. Can't fight fire but you can fight zombies just fine."

She had a point there, and as Dean looked away, he saw Sam smile and wipe the ice cream off her nose.

**V.**

River trusted both of them as far as she could throw them. Which, in all probability, was pretty far, but Sam was the one she chose to sleep beside. Dean supposed it was that whole 'Two-psychics-bonding' thing, not that he was complaining. No offence to Sammy but he really didn't feel like sharing a bed with his brother and no one really wanted to sleep on the floor.

Sam seemed to sleep better with River by his side anyway. More than once, Dean saw Sam pressed against her back, arm casually thrown across her waist. He made no comments about it and Sam didn't seem to care.

Dean wondered if he slept with Jessica like that.

**VI.**

River didn't speak about the world ending anymore, realizing that it made Dean antsy. That and the threat of duct taping her mouth shut and locking her in the trunk. The glare that Sam sent his way almost made him think twice about retracting the threat.

Almost.

Sometimes though, Dean heard Sam and River talk about it. Dean couldn't really make out what they were saying the nights neither could sleep but Dean knew that Sam's visions were worsening.

He could hold his little brother's hand as he shook eyes unseeing as the vision became more intense. He didn't realize how much he missed protecting his brother, how empty he started to feel since River arrived until Sam gasped out, "You've always taken care of me," before he passed out.

Dean watched Sam's breathing even out, becoming less erratic and his body relaxed. His shoulders sagged after Sam seemed to return to normal but he continued to hold his hand. A small hand grasped his shoulder, a soft kiss pressed to his temple and Dean slowly turned his head to meet her eyes. "My brother always took care of me too," she whispered.

They stared at one another, those simple words conveying so much before she left, leaving Dean to watch over his baby brother.

**VII.**

Dean woke up screaming the day the apocalypse started.

He sat gasping, drenched in a cold sweat and he looked around frantically, not quite sure what he was looking for. He finally stopped, eyes resting on Sam and River. They sat on the bed opposite. Her head rested on his shoulder, Sam's hands held hers. "You," he panted, looking at River who met his eyes unblinkingly. "The end of the world. You started it."

She rolled her eyes, something that seemed out of place in the conversation but completely River. "I had to prepare you," she said. Her voice was soft but it sounded deafening. "Had to make you ready. Put you through the motions."

Dean's mind tried to wrap around her words, and he swallowed harshly. "Every job… was the motions." His thoughts were running rapid. Prepare him… did that mean that this was the reason his father vanished? Was this… this the reason his mother died? He felt shaky, sick to his stomach and he couldn't look at River and focused on his brother instead. His baby brother who met his gaze sadly. "Your visions… they were all for this, weren't they?"

A wry, ghost of a smile graced Sam's face and he shrugged lamely. "I'm your back up. You're the special one."

**VIII.**

_Why? Why me?_

_I looked into your heart and you just stood out from all the rest. _

_Why did you see in my heart?_

_A young man with an important purpose. A job to do. And it isn't finished._

**IX.**

"He's got the weight of the world on his shoulders," Sam said quietly, leaning against the railing, watching his brother in the training room below. Months since the end of the world started. Who knew so many people like them were around banding together to fight?

They'd arrived in Cleveland to find a rag tag army of other hunters like themselves, psychics like Missouri (who still had yet to be found), and those who had sought refuge having no idea what was really going on.

Their father had not been among them.

He gripped the railing a little tighter. "We always thought I was the special one," Sam whispered. "The one with the visions. The one the demon was after but it turned out that Dean was the one they were going for all along." He watched his brother walk among the lines of people, directing them on what they had to do.

Dean had to lead them all.

"The Apocalypse's Great General." Sam looked over his shoulder. "I'm just the one that tells him what's going on. The satellite TV."

"He'll protect us," River told him, slipping her hand in his. Sam looked down at her, their eyes locking. She smiled. "He's the big brother. Big brothers take care of us." She turned away to look back down at Dean, but Sam kept looking at her.

"I guess you already know what I'm going to say."

River shrugged, glancing back up at him. "I like to hear you say it."

"I love you."

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Will there be more of this? Possibly. Will we learn about River's past in this universe? Probably. OMG Did I kill Simon Tam? Yes. OMG is Dean shirtless in that last scene? Of course ;) 


	2. Chapter 2 Straight On 'Till Morning

**Series: **It Must Be Tuesday

**Title**: Straight on 'Til Morning

Rating: PG 

**Summary**: The immediate aftermath of the apocalypse. Sam, Dean, and River try to make it to Haven alive.

**Characters: **Sam, Dean, and River Tam and some surprise appearances  
**Disclaimer**: None of the characters are mine but the idea/plot is.

* * *

**Monday: 28 days after the start of the apocalypse.  
Location: Nebraska**

Dean drummed his fingers against the steering wheel, partly bored, mostly trying to resist turning the volume up. Acres of scorched cornfields were beginning to get on his nerves and he desperately need a distraction but the last time he tried to turn the volume up, Sam reached over and smacked his hand away. It was followed by a jerk of the head to the backseat and Dean would glance at the rear view mirror to look at the sleeping girl curled up in her slip of a dress, the clunky boots on her feet a sharp contrast. Delicate looking.

Delicate, he thought, head aching in memory. Yeah right.

The fires burning in the dead fields they pass every now and then keeps everything dark. The headlights can only light so much and Dean has daymares of suddenly coming up on a gang of demons and it would already be too late to do anything. Sam wakes up in the middle of the night while he sips cold coffee and asks if he wants him to take the wheel for awhile, get some sleep but Dean shakes his head. Can't take care of their little family – when the hell did River become family? – if he's dead to the world.

They don't stop if they don't have to. Gas stations and empty town grocery stores are always a rest place and sometimes they'll crash in an abandoned house but Dean can't sleep so he sits on the couch, shotgun across his lap and watches Sam sleep with River pressed against his chest, arm slung over her waist.

He wonders again if his brother held Jessica like that.

**Wednesday: 37 days after the start of the apocalypse.  
Location: Somewhere in the middle of someplace**

It was on a lonely stretch of road outside of Jeretsville, Idaho that they encountered their first, nice army of zombies. Sam had never seen zombies like these before. Sure, Dawn of the Dead, Resident Evil seemed pretty cool on the whole zombie aspect but the zombies he encountered never took running leaps and flung themselves on the hoods of cars.

And suddenly it appeared among the undead. Black with spines on it's back and large, dripping yellow fangs protruding from the mouth. The Impala was sitting idle as the brothers stared at the beast in stunned horror. Some old Van Halen song continued to play and Dean couldn't remember what it was, just that the beast in front of his car, illuminated by the yellow headlights was slowly turning to look at them. He thought he heard Sam whisper his name but he couldn't be sure.

The hellhound stared. He stared right back. It tilted its head back and it gave an unearthly and distorted howl. It illuminated a smoky red before staring back and charged toward them.

"Didn't lie down," River whispered, moving closer to the window, placing her hand against the glass. "They never lie down."

"Buckshot and bullets in the trunk," Dean said, staring at the undead in front of them. "Pretty mobile for corpses. Nice dog."

Sam dug around under the seats and searched through the glove compartment. "Didn't we used to have a box of regular ammo in here?"

Three zombies threw themselves against the car and Dean snarled. "Bastards mess up my car and - "

Something thumped on the roof and Dean looked at River. She was murmuring under her breath, eyes closed before she looked at him and the look on her face said it all. Following him. He turned to look at Sam, who was watching expectantly.

Better get used to it…

The instinct to protect his car wrenched Dean free from his immobility and he threw the car into reverse and spun around just in time to avoid the beast jumping up onto the hood of the car and smashing in the glass.

"Is it coming back at us?" Dean asked. He was gripping the steering wheel tight and staring at the illuminated road, breaking the eighty miles mark and quickly approaching one hundred.

"Still coming," Sam whispered and looked away from the beast chasing them. "Dean?"

Dean said nothing and just kept driving.

**Saturday: 40 days after the start of the apocalypse.  
Location: Somewhere in the middle of Iowa**

At this rate it would be four days on the road to Cleveland and Dean went slow through deserted towns looking for survivors or they scavenged for food. He still didn't sleep much. Too antsy and wired to shut his eyes for more than thirty minutes. Sam tried but there wasn't any way he could get his brother to sleep. To let him turn over the wheel and after awhile he just gave up but when he started to veer off the road going over twenty-five, he was taking over.

At a gas station in Iowa, Sam came back to see Dean still staring at his cellphone, deleting names of those they knew were no longer among them but his fingers stilled and he just stared at the screen. Sam set the scavenged groceries in the backseat and peered over and understood. "You should try. Just in case."

His voice was slightly hoarse and resigned. "We didn't part on the best of terms."

"So? Dean, the apocalypse happened. You could at least try calling to see..." But his brother was already shaking his head and shoved the phone back in his pocket and put the gas pump back in its slot.

"Come on. Still three more states to go and I don't wanna go over the Mississippi in the dark."

**Monday: 53 days after the start of the apocalypse.  
Location: Cobb, Montana**

They ran into them in Montana. A group of fighters setting up camp in the abandoned hospital off Bellview. There were more, they said, all over the place with headquarters in Cleveland. "The darkness has come," the old woman said as they helped her set up her small room on the third floor. "Ye have been chosen, haven't ya?" She stared at Dean as she said this with a near toothless smile and Dean, feeling uncomfortable, nodded and put her small dresser into place.

"Any idea what she means?" Dean shrugged and propped his booted foot on a plastic chair and tightened his laces.

"Crazy old lady. Who the hell knows what's going on in her head." Dean rarely spoke like that about the elderly and so it was clear how tense and stressed he was. "Kiov said they needed help getting the water main running to the east wing. Something about a malfunction in the piping or something. You check it out, I'm heading up on watch."

Sam didn't argue about it. Didn't tell Dean that he should crash for a few hours because if he didn't, he wasn't any use to anyone but there wasn't a damn thing he could do when Dean's mind was made up.

**Wednesday: 65 days after the start of the apocalypse.**

**Location: Middle of Illinois**

He wondered if the visions would one day drive him to the brink of madness like his… like River. Death. Destruction. Chaos. Can't bring it home with you. Sam glanced over at Dean who slept in the backseat of the car.

It was hard when it was all happening in you head.

"Bullets and twinkies." River held up the two bags of loot she'd gotten from the abandoned gas station. Dark hair lank and stringy around her scratched up face but she was smiling serenely and that seemed to make it all okay. The bandages on her arm were coming off and Sam wished they knew if hellhound scratches would turn her into one like a werewolf. He wanted to ask her if she was okay.

"Bullets in a Quickmart?" He said instead, softly smiling. River rolled her eyes and quietly set the bags on the floor near Dean's feet.

"He's fine." She said.

Verge of breakdown, not eating, had to put scavenged sleeping pills in his Mountain Dew…

Sam nodded, wrapping an arm around her thin shoulders. "Yeah. He's fine."**Tuesday: 70 days after the start of the apocalypse.  
Location: Haven (Tower City), Cleveland, Ohio**

Even though he looked little more than the zombies coming the slums near the river, they still looked at him like he was the second coming.

Dean had never been more terrified in his entire life (well, Sam being choked to death by a lamp chord was in close second along with the night his mother died but that was a given). There was maybe… thirty? Fifty? Gathered at the entrance to Haven. He felt like he was walking onto the Death Star or an army barracks or something really intimidating. Someone had used a bunch of metal to construct blast door and Dean suspected the little turrets above it were flamethrowers.

Inventive.

A tall, bald black man dressed in sagging blue jeans and a thin sweatshirt stepped forward, grin on his face. "Well look at you. How'd I know you'd make it?"

Dean gave a ghost of a smile, holding up a hand in greeting. "Hey, Gunn. Knew you'd make it through this bitch." He tried to forget the million pairs of eyes on him. Awkward silence prevailed and Dean looked at the faces in front of him. He ignored Sam's quiet and concerned questions.

The boy had to be no older than twelve or thirteen. His t-shirt was too big and awkward. Scuffed blue sneakers and pale face. Longish brown hair hung in his eyes and he had an arm wrapped firmly around a little girl with straggly brown hair and a Hello Kitty t-shirt.

Dean took his arms away from Sam and River, straightening, still staring at the floppy haired boy and the little girl before turning to Gunn. His face was set. All business. Gunn automatically straightened, a look of surprise on his face, as if he couldn't find the reason for doing that. Dean stared right back.

"Let's get to work."


	3. Chapter 3 First Rule

**Series: **It Must Be Tuesday  
**Title: **First Rule**  
Rating: **G/PG**  
Summary: **Sam felt guilty for falling in love with River Tam.**  
Characters: **Sam and River**  
Disclaimer: **None of the characters are mine but the idea/plot is. lj user"lunarknightz" asked my permission to right a story based inside this universe under my intense guidance. If you wish to do the same, please e-mail me and perhaps we can work something out.  
**A/N: **Mind you I'm feverish and just got done watching I Serenity /I four times in a row.

The italicised words is a bastardised version of Mal's speech at the end of _Serenity _.

**-------------------------------------------  
**

Sam felt guilty for falling in love with River Tam. Maybe that meant he really didn't love her that way at all. No matter which way he loved her, he still felt guilty. She was dark when Jessica was light. She saw into the truth of things when Jess saw the best in all. River didn't make him feel safe. Not the way Jessica felt safe.

Felt.

The past tense still made his heart ache.

River was like smoke. So wispy and filling every little space… if you tried to catch her, hold her down she'd just slip through your fingers. Jessica wasn't like that. She was soft and warm. Her hair smelled like strawberries and her skin like vanilla. River smelled like soap and just something distinctly River. River could rattle off quantum physics and Jessica could sing Goo Goo Dolls song you wanted to hear in that sweet, off-key voice of hers.

_You know what the first rule of living is, Sam? _

Sam felt guilty for falling in love with River Tam.

They hadn't — _you know_ — yet. It didn't feel right to Sam. Not because of Jessica, but because…

Because River shouldn't be touched that way.

He could hold her while they slept. They never cuddled, he just threw his arm over her waist and her back pressed to his chest. She never aroused him. They never tried to kiss. They were just — there. Coexisting.

Sam felt guilty for falling in love with River Tam.

Maybe it was the psychic bond. River could see things and he would dream them. She helped him understand and Sam didn't feel so alone. Yes, he had Dean and no, nothing would ever come between their bond and what they had but it was a different alone. One that Dean couldn't fully understand and Dean felt guilty about it. He didn't need to read him to know that.

Jessica would've given a pep talk about not trying to come between them, smiling and looking guilty and it would be an honest admission and they'd make things work.

River said, "This is how it needs to be. But he needs his brother with him even if he can't comprehend."

And maybe that was better than trying to make things work.

It was the honest, real truth.

_Love.  
_

Sam felt guilty for falling in love with River Tam.

He couldn't sleep without her there anymore. That used to be only reserved for Dean and Jessica. Dean's slight snoring from the next bed. Jessica's soft breathing and soft sighs.

River was dead silent when she slept. She didn't move, barely breathed. As if she was waiting. When she did move, her movements were jerky and strange. Then she'd wake up crying out and inconsolable until they realized that danger was near.

Then he started doing that too.

Sam felt guilty for falling in love with River Tam.

River scared folk. Big brown eyes that could see into you, strip you bare and the scariest thing?

It was exactly what she was doing.

She was silent as a cat. Graceful and inconspicuous. Unnoticeable. A panther waiting to strike. Small, elegant hands that could kill you in a split second.

Truthfully.

Sam admired her for that. In a morbid way.

_You can have all the schoolin' in the 'verse... but you tell a girl you don't love her... she'll shake you off just as sure as the turn of the worlds._

Sam felt guilty for falling in love with River Tam.

If River knew what he was thinking (and to be honest, she probably picked up on it long before he thought it), she said nothing to him about it. Said nothing for a long time. He figured out she knew when he woke up to her stroking his hair. He looked at her as she mouthed words. Whispered things he couldn't understand. She didn't look at him. She stared at a point on the wall behind him and her fingers continued to sift through his hair. Jessica used to stroke his hair.

It didn't feel too bad when River did it.

She looked genuinely startled when she looked down at him to see that he was awake and stumbled out of bed. She looked lost and frightened and left the room.

Sam didn't go after her.

Sam felt guilty for falling in love with River Tam.

River had vanished. Dean watched him, tried to say something but then closed his mouth. Unsure. Then said that he needed him to do something. No one told him where she had gone.

Sam searched high and low. She wasn't in the atrium or with Kaylee. Wasn't watching the children playing like she did. Wasn't dancing down the escalators.

Three days and then Sam gave up. Sat on the dancing fountain, his back getting sprayed occasionally from the water and stared sightlessly until a flash of a faded red dress and bare feet came into view.

She kneeled next to him. Didn't touch him and he didn't try touch her. River smiled slightly, trying to be comforting. "You make me a person. Make me feel like a girl again."

_Love keeps you in the air when you ought to fall down... tells you she's hurting before she keens. Makes her a home.  
_

Sam didn't feel so guilty for falling in love with River Tam.


End file.
